well as regards to minimalist living, i once spent a month living in a hut with no electricity, walls and floor plastereed with cow-dung, and the roof made of iron sheets,my only possesions were a change of clothes and two books. my bed a mat spread on the floor. no phone, no television, dinner cooked on an open fire.gladly i had neighbours and passers-by to share time with even though i couldnt reallly communicate with them they were the most peaceful relaxing times i ever experienced and definitely played a part in changing my outlook to life.however take me away from the internet for a month now and i would have withdrawl symptoms

Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion.Aflame, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs ......Seeing thus, the disciple of the Noble One grows disenchanted. SN 35.28

Mkoll, I appreciate your response. I'm not defending Warren Buffett, and especially as we are focusing on ethically minimalist or mindfully ascetic lifestyles, he's really not fodder for such an interesting topic. Ruthless, to me, however, are the real life Gordon Gekkos that we all know about. Greed for the sake of greed. Buffett seems to be someone who at a young age wanted to be an (the) American businessman/entrepreneur, the same way that Bobby Fischer or Boris Spassky were consumed by chess and became champions. Perhaps Buffett has a kind of high functioning isolationist quality to him...he seems disinterested in most of what interests other wealthy people ("why have ten houses that I'd have to heat and manage?"), wants only a hamburger and a Coke to be happy, and yet is completely immersed in researching and buying companies to create more wealth.

I guess to come back to topic, it's necessary to recognize that a renunciate life means giving up those things that one normally wants, or that one's friends or family or society would typically want or desire. To live simply just because you don't care about certain trappings of wealth suggests that you might just be too focused on or obsessed with one area of life, to the exclusion of other things. Didn't see the Picasso over the toilet because you were so focused on the free shampoo in the shower? I guess that makes him a bit odd, but not a mindful minimalist by volition.